The Real Reasons Why These Popular TV Show Characters Were Killed Off

It's always jarring when a long-time TV show character is seemingly killed off unexpectedly...but is there more to the story behind the scenes? It's always a heartwrenching experience whenever a favorite character of ours is killed in a long-running series. The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones are exceptional examples of that in recent history.

It's at all times jarring when a long-time TV show personality is outwardly killed off swiftly...however is there extra to the story behind the scenes?

Mustafa Gatollari - Author

It's at all times a heartwrenching enjoy whenever a favorite persona of ours is killed in a long-running collection. The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones are remarkable examples of that during recent history. While the storytellers at the back of these shows were relatively intentional about these stunning deaths, there are some collection that tossed in the death of a loved character that appeared a little off.

Article continues beneath commercial

Sometimes, their exists were handled graciously in a way that enhanced the plot. Other occasions, they were so out of left field and performed in any such seemingly careless method that the writing workforce is left kicking themselves years later.

In these circumstances, the exits of popular characters had extra to do with behind the scenes drama that it did a real inventive resolution. Here are some instances where actors were "killed off" in shows or not introduced again for a movie sequel, but the reasoning at the back of their departure wasn't purely an inventive choice.

Article continues under advertisement

Michael Pitt - 'Boardwalk Empire'

Listen, Michael Pitt can act. The dude's were given something this is simple and he was once simply one among the greatest draws in HBO's improbable Boardwalk Empire sequence. Steve Buscemi might've been the show's primary protagonist, however everybody and their mom who watched the show was blown away through the persona of Jimmy Darmody, who used to be played by Pitt brilliantly.

Article continues under advertisement

Jimmy was once chain-smoking, weepy-eyed, square-jawed, brooding alcoholic killer who had a romantic dating along with his personal mother. He used to be also killed by means of Nucky in a very premature manner...handiest two seasons into the show. While at the time it was once touted as a "creative decision," word on the street was that Pitt was once so horrendous to work with, that manufacturing reportedly made him re-do his dying scene more than one instances the place he used to be dragged via the mud, even if they by no means planned on using the shot.

Article continues below commercial

Pitt additionally reportedly wouldn't learn his strains and manufacturing as soon as had to reshoot a whole scene as a result of he just could not keep in mind what he had to say. It's additionally worth noting that ahead of his Boardwalk Empire departure Pitt was fired by way of his personal agent...which used to be a little of a premonition.

Roseanne Barr - 'Roseanne'

Article continues beneath advertisement

The long-running ABC comedy used to be welcomed by way of audiences all across America for its "authenticity" in depicting characters from a operating/decrease elegance background. The Conner family's troubles were always tackled head on, and occasionally created via its matriarch, Roseanne, performed by means of comedian Roseanne Barr. Then she tweeted one thing that appeared pretty darn racist.

She tweeted a former aide of Barack Obama's, Valerie Jarrett gave the impression of the offspring of the "Muslim brotherhood & Planet of the Apes". She apologized nevertheless it was clear that she had dug herself right into a hole and there was no getting out of it. Roseanne used to be effectively cut however the show carried on: her character was once killed off and Roseanne become The Conners — the writers had Roseanne's persona die of an opioid overdose.

Article continues beneath commercial

Shannon Doherty - 'Beverly Hills 90210' and 'Charmed'

Shannon Doherty was a prime solid member on two extraordinarily popular community TV displays: Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed. Doherty had in the beginning gotten into a fistfight with fellow forged member Jennie Garth throughout her 90210 days. Tori Spelling asked her father Aaron Spelling, who was a producer for the show, to get Shannon booted, and he did.

Article continues underneath advertisement

Fast forward years later when Aaron used to be casting for Charmed and he picked Shannon for the role and she or he did nice work for 3 seasons...till she was once in the long run killed off. It gave the look of her dangerous blood between castmates just couldn't be quelled; Doherty and Alyssa Milano had reportedly just stopped talking to one another someday. Shannon determined that as a substitute of being fired she would give up and he or she even directed the final episode that saw her character killed off.

Mandy Patinkin - 'Criminal Minds'

Article continues beneath commercial

Mandy Patinkin used to be the authentic bad guy profiler for Criminal Minds, and early on in the show's 3rd season, he was simply...long gone. Joe Mantegna had stepped in to take over profiling duties and fanatics of the show were left scratching their heads questioning simply why Mandy left the program.

As it turns out, it needed to do together with his "soul". Mandy requested for the community to finish his contract after he didn't show up for a table learn.

In a 2012 New York Magazine interview, Mandy would cross on to name his involvement with the show, the "biggest public mistake" that he had ever made. He additionally didn't like what the showrunners at Criminal Minds were promoting, "I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day. ... It was very destructive to my soul and my personality. Audiences all over the world use this programming as their bedtime story. This isn't what you need to be dreaming about."

Article continues beneath advertisement

Chevy Chase - 'Community'

Chevy Chase is not precisely known to be the absolute best guy to get in conjunction with on set, simply ask Bill Murray. During the filming of Community even though, there were a slew of issues that manufacturing had with Chase. One ordinary theme with Chevy is that he would continuously leave set earlier than filming used to be done for the day. The fruits of his dangerous conduct used to be an angry diatribe that incorporated a racial slur.

Article continues under commercial

The show's creator, Dan Harmon (who additionally did Rick & Morty) stated that Chase would additionally say racist issues in between takes to Donald Glover, together with comments like other people handiest found him humorous as a result of he was black. Chase's character, Pierce was once written off in Season 4, where he died of a middle assault. One that used to be totally real and now not the faux ones he'd ceaselessly make use of so as to get himself out of hassle.

Wesley Shipp - 'Dawson's Creek'

Article continues below commercial

In what must be regarded as one among the largest errors in writing judgment in trendy TV writing historical past, Wesley Shipp's go out from Dawson's Creek was once spurned on by means of ingenious differences the actor had with the show's trajectory. He thought that there would be more important time given to the adult characters in the collection, however noticed that he was getting much less and no more to do in the show as time improved and all of the attention was being put on the show's younger characters.

So the writing team killed him off in devastating fashion. Well, the proven fact that he would now not be there was devastating, but how he died was once kind of ridiculous. The guy was once eating an ice cream cone whilst riding his pick-up truck. The cone proceeds to fall on the flooring of the truck and he leans over to select up the cone and proceed consuming it (probably, and, eww) and then will get into a automobile accident that takes his lifestyles. Tom Kapinos, a creator for the show mentioned of Shipp's exit, "That was just an utter disaster, and I think it’s joked about to this day."

Article continues underneath advertisement

Mischa Barton - 'The O.C.'

The O.C. was once a spoil success for FOX and Mischa Barton, who played Marissa Cooper in the series was quickly being regarded as as an exhilarating new potential skill in Hollywood. So much so that she was once quickly making an allowance for leaving the sequence to move and find different tasks to paintings on and eventually transition to movie. 

Article continues under commercial

The thing is, producers do not actually like it while you begin to treat the show you might be working on like a second-rate "have to" task, so they wrote Mischa off of The O.C. and Marissa died in a automobile accident. At least Mischa's had steady paintings ever since leaving the show.

Kal Penn - 'House'

Article continues beneath advertisement

Kal Penn proved he could no longer simplest act in comedies (Harold and Kumar), but clinical dramas rather neatly. Kal performed Lawrence Kutner on the show, a sports drugs, and rehab specialist, and he was once a fan favourite persona who was once a mainstay of the series. This is why when all over the show's fifth season, he up and died out of nowhere, audience were shocked. Well, fortunately, Kal's departure wasn't because he had a nasty operating dating with the manufacturing crew.

Kal used to be introduced an associate Director Job in the White House and that was once going to consume into all of his time, so he could not meet his filming quota for the series, which brought on his character to be was killed off. As a long way as excuses go for no longer being able to continue filming for a TV show, serving your nation in the White House is a horny excellent reason why.

Article continues beneath commercial

T.R. Knight - 'Grey's Anatomy'

Grey's Anatomy won't come off as a program where numerous care is put into narrative construction or personality arcs and development, but it appears, there was enough of a war of words between T.R. Knight and writer Shonda Rhimes for the destiny of Dr. George O'Malley. Knight hated what O'Malley's direction was once so much that he reportedly asked Rhimes to just kill him off as a substitute.

Article continues under advertisement

Knight then added his conversation with Rhimes had "broken down" or even hinted manufacturing's choice to write him off of the program had something to do with the fact that he openly got here out as homosexual, one thing Rhimes disputes as Grey's Anatomy. In the show's fifth season, he was killed by way of a bus.

Lisa Bonet - 'The Cosby Show'

Article continues under advertisement

Look, it's almost unattainable to "out cool" Lisa Bonet. She was the maximum popular forged member on The Cosby Show even after just one season, heck, folks still take into account her being on the show. She was so loved that she even had her own popular spin-off sequence known as A Different World. Problem is, and as funny as this sounds given what we learn about Bill Cosby now, is that because the show all the time espoused top moral values, Lisa couldn't be aside of the program to any extent further.

Lisa had gotten engaged to Lenny Kravitz and introduced to producers that she was once pregnant. They could not have the eldest Huxtable pregnant and single, so writers had penned some story about her touring to Africa to grow to be a photographer's assistant. Things ended pretty neatly for Lisa. She went on to have a super occupation, she's married to Jason Momoa, and she's passed on the performing torch to her daughter Zoe Kravitz.

Article continues under advertisement

Josh Charles - 'The Good Wife'

The Good Wife went on for seven seasons and all the way through nearly all of it, fans were rooting for Josh's persona, Will Gardner, to get with Alicia Florrick. Maybe that's what the writers had deliberate down the line, but there is not any method to know that or if they might ever finally end up together because Josh had expressed to production that he sought after to pursue other initiatives and career opportunities.

Article continues beneath commercial

So the writing team made up our minds that the best possible solution to eliminate Josh can be to shock audiences with a horrific courtroom shooting scene in Season 5. The desired impact used to be completed and there was once no approach audiences ever noticed that twist coming their approach.

Charlie Sheen - 'Two And a Half Men'

Article continues below advertisement

The CBS sitcom was once a scores powerhouse and at the forefront of it was Charlie Sheen, who played what used to be just about a toned down model of himself named Charlie Harper. Sheen had a laundry checklist of issues off-screen, which integrated multiple visits to drug rehab facilities, public rants about having "tiger's blood" and making some very sturdy feedback in opposition to the sequence' writer, Chuck Lorre.

Charlie's unapologetic angle did not lend a hand issues either when he demanded to be paid even more money, which production concept used to be ludicrous as he was already the absolute best paid actor on TV at the time: Charlie was once incomes a whopping $1.Eight million consistent with episode of Two and a Half Men previous to his exit.

If you could have never noticed some of his wild interviews, then...wow. Take a minute...or a number of to move down the YouTube rabbit hollow.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXSramam6Ses7p6wqikaKhfqbWmedGemKVlopqutLvNrGSpp6CquaK%2BjK2tZquYpMRur8eaqZqbpJq%2FtHnWnqmeZZueua2xw2amn54%3D

 Share!